“…when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)

Sunday, May 27, 2012

What I am doing?

Little people learning to speak are fun to watch. It's amazing to watch the development, and once language learning takes hold, it becomes impossible to track where they learn everything.

As they learn to communicate, they think they have learned how to say something correctly within the parameters of their native language. And then they hilariously bump up against the rules of grammar.
At its most basic level, grammar helps us construct relationships between things about which we want to communicate. After gaining an initial grasp of vocabulary comes going after those relationships. They are highly motivated to match their language to their desires.

We teach them relative words of describing people like me and you, and then the verbs that go with relationships between me and you like I am, you are, and so forth.

Lastly comes the direction of the conversation. Are they trying to get information, or are they trying to give it? The statement and the question.

What makes this unmistakably fun and can plant an uneraseable smile on our faces is when they valiantly venture into unfamiliar linguistic territory.

One such question I heard recently was, "What I am doing?" Of course, the little one was intending to ask, "What am I doing?" but hearing that little voice ask "What I am doing?" was just off-the-charts full of cuteness.

The question lingered with me this weekend. And a quiet question came along with it: What about asking that question as if it were already a little more grammatically correct? What I am doing? What is I Am doing?

Highlights

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Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, that I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may be refreshed together with you. Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
Romans 15:30-33